2012 a wild year in weather for Maryland

A military truck sits in the water on St. Louis Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets as personnel help residents (two women, one man and family pet) evacuate amid Hurricane Sandy's flooding.

A military truck sits in the water on St. Louis Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets as personnel help residents (two women, one man and family pet) evacuate amid Hurricane Sandy's flooding. (Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron / October 29, 2012)

Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun

2012 will rank among the top five warmest years on record in Baltimore, and it was memorable for many other weather events -- from a mild winter to tornadoes to a "derecho" to Superstorm Sandy.

Here are some highlights:

Extremes included a 13-degree low Jan. 4, 104-degree highs July 7 and July 18, and 5.51 inches of rain Oct. 29.

Seventy-three days reached below freezing, 45 days surpassed 90 degrees, and one of each was in April, on the 3rd and 16th, respectively.

Contributing to the year's high ranking among warm years were several warmer-than-normal seasons, starting with a winter that saw the smallest snowfall in three decades and a spring that was the warmest on record.

Maryland emerged from a drought that is still gripping much of the nation's midsection, but is still short of normal annual precipitation. Through Dec. 28, about 37 inches of rain and 2.8 inches of snow had fallen in 2012 at BWI Marshall Airport, short of the norms of about 43 inches of rain and about 20 inches of snow.